


The Little King

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, an au where kageyama goes to aobajoshai instead of karasuno, hahaa dont read this, love u laina, ooc towards the end on purpose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 06:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4655658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was never the Little Giant, as he had so desperately desired. The only thing he was ever called was the Little King, to his face by opposing teams, behind his back by his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little King

**Author's Note:**

> i should be working on my multichap fic instead of torturing my qp but here i am

1.

The first time they meet is fire and sparks and white-hot anger. It’s full of taunts and tension and naïve determination, of _I came to win_ and _I’m going to win them all_. One is bursting at the seams with life and hope and searing energy, and one is radiating ice and determination and sheer talent. One leaves the court with vengeance in his heart, and one with a trophy in his hands.

 

2.

Hinata Shouyou shows up early to an empty gym on his first day of high school, but he doesn’t mind because there’s a basket of volleyballs wheeled into the corner and a real, proper net set up in the center of the court. He feels something, standing on that barren court, but he can’t place a finger of what exactly it is. He chalks it up to the itch in his fingers and, hoping against hope that his new captain won’t mind, he gingerly, reverently takes a ball and tries a serve.

 

3.

Suga-san is a great setter. He knows exactly how to use Hinata’s strengths for the benefit of the team, but he can never get it quite fast enough. To compensate for the speed Suga’s tosses lack, Hinata must slow himself down. It’s hard at first, especially with the giant Tsukishima’s constant berating, but he manages. _Hinata-kun and Tanaka-kun make an amazing set of spikers!_ Takeda-sensai tells them, and no one has the heart to break it to him that they’re average at best.

 

4.

Aoba Joshai is a powerhouse school. It’s still baffling to the entire team how Takeda-sensei managed to secure a practice match with them—after all, they have no libero, no ace, no titles, and no coach. But Karasuno does not look a gift horse in the mouth, and Hinata doesn’t either. He knows who their setter will be, and he knows that he can bring all he has into the match. But the King has been dethroned, resigned to the bench, looking sour as ever, and Hinata boils at the idea that he won’t be able to battle him yet.

 

5.

Noya-senpai speaks in strictly verbs and radiates the same kind of wild, unbridled energy Hinata does. They drift towards each other, sensing kindred spirits, but it’s not enough of a gravitation to bring Karasuno’s libero back onto the team. Hinata is relentless, but even he has a limit, and cannot manage to budge the immovable force of the Guardian God.

 

6.  
Hinata, for all of his enthusiasm and determination, cannot convince the ace to rejoin the team. He should have expected such an outcome, as even Asahi’s friends had failed, but Hinata is not one to let such trivial obstacles stand in his way. Try as he might, Asahi is as stuck in his place as Noya. The ace and the libero both stand apart from their team; one is grounded by fear, and one is grounded by pride.

 

7.

Karasuno’s next practice match is a bust. Nekoma is not an inherently strong team, but the way they move and work themselves to each other’s strengths and weaknesses stands head and shoulders over Karasuno’s decent-at-best teamwork abilities. But the team is kind and Hinata makes friends—he decides he would rather play against Nekoma than Aobajoshai, any day.

 

8.

The Inter-High brackets are released and Karasuno still hasn’t gotten any better. Daichi does his best to be both captain and coach, but there’s only so much a high schooler can teach other high schoolers. Their skill level still sits firmly in the middle of the scale, not noticeably high, but not laughably low either. Still, Hinata pushes on with the stamina that his teammates constantly praise and tease, the determination and desire for revenge burning inside of him and keeping him going.

 

9.

Karasuno does not make it past the first match of the inter-high preliminaries. Dateko Tech shuts the team down efficiently and easily, leaving the third-years and Tanaka disheartened. Even Hinata can’t bring himself to become excited and shoulder the responsibility of morale-booster that he had been silently assigned. _You did great!_ Takeda tries, but all he is met with are weak, watered-down smiles and halfhearted tank-yous. They did their best, but their best is not great. Their best cannot beat the King. For the first time, Hinata feels what the King himself must feel—if only his team had pushed harder, trained harder, fought harder. But he’s just a first year, he can’t take the position of leading them. He will have to wait for his vengeance, let it age and fester within him, but that’s okay. At least he’ll get it.

 

10.

The high school years pass quickly, all of it a blur of sweat and aching muscles and lost matches. But not anymore. Not his last year. His last year to play volleyball, and Hinata will not let it be in vain. He, as Karasuno’s new number one, will lead them to nationals. Will lead them into battle against the King, and they will win. They have to win.

 

11.  
They do not win. They make it far, farther than anyone but Hinata had thought possible. But not far enough. His team is pushed to its brink and then beyond, but it’s never enough for Captain Hinata. Tsukishima is the only one who tells him this (loudly, in the middle of practice), and deep down, Hinata knows. But he doesn’t care. His sights are set on one thing—winning. He can’t understand why his team’s sights are different. _Do you enjoy losing?_ The question burns his mouth as it leaves but it’s already out so he has to stick with it. It doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter if they win or lose, because Hinata’s already lost. He’s lost at volleyball and he’s lost to the King. He was never the Little Giant, as he had so desperately desired. The only thing he was ever called was the Little King, to his face by opposing teams, behind his back by his own.


End file.
